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To Mrs. Jameson

Maison Versigny, 2 Rue de Perry, Le Havre: 
July 24, 1858 [postmark].

Dearest Mona Nina,—­Have you rather wondered at not hearing?  We have been a-wandering, a-wandering over the world—­have been to Etretat and failed, and now are ignominiously settled at Havre—­yes, at Havre, the name of which we should have scorned a week ago as a mere roaring commercial city.  But after all, as sometimes I say with originality, ‘civilisation is a good thing.’  The country about Etretat is very pretty, and the coast picturesque with fantastic rocks, but the accommodation dear in proportion to its badness; which I do believe is the case everywhere with places, now and then even with persons—­dear in proportion to their badness.  We could get three bedrooms, a salon, and kitchen, one opening into another and no other access, and the kitchen presenting the first door, all furnished exactly alike, except that where the bedroom had a bed the kitchen had a stove; wooden chairs en suite, not an inch of carpet, and just an inch of looking-glass in the best bedroom.  View, a potato-patch, and price two hundred francs a month.  Robert took it in a ‘fine phrenzy,’ on which I rebelled, and made him give it up on a sacrifice of ten francs, which was the only cheap thing in the place, as far as I observed anything.  Also, the bay is so restricted that whoever takes a step is ‘commanded’ by all the windows of the primitive hotel and the few villas, and as people have nothing whatever to do but to look at you, you may imagine the perfection of the analysis.  I should have been a fly in a microscope, feeling my legs and arms counted on all sides, and receiving no comfort from the scientific results.  So, you see, we ‘gave it up’ and came here in a sort of despair, meaning to take the railroad to Dieppe; when lo! our examining forces find that the place here is very tenable, and we take a house close to the sea (though the view is interrupted) in a green garden, and quite away from a suggestion of streets and commerce.  The bathing is good, we have a post-office and reading-rooms at our elbow, and nothing distracting of any kind.  The house is large and airy, and our two families are lodged in separate apartments, though we meet at dinner in our dining-room.  Certainly the country immediately around Havre is not pretty, but we came for the sea after all, and the sea is open and satisfactory.  Robert has found a hole I can creep through to the very shore, without walking many yards, and there I can sit on a bench and get strength, if so it pleases God.

Have I not sent you a full account of us?  Now if you would return me a cent. per cent.—­soll und haben.  I want so much to know all about you—­how you feel, dearest friend, and how you are.  Do write and tell me of yourself.  May God bless you ever and ever!

Your affectionate and grateful
BA.